The patent documents No. 1 and No. 2 describe examples of such an apparatus that discharges and feeds items, which have been weighed by a weigher, into a container having a plurality of storage cavities formed to hold the items. In the apparatuses described in the patent documents No. 1 and No. 2, the weighed items are successively supplied into and temporarily stored in a respective one of a plurality of timing hoppers each arranged correspondingly to an array of storage cavities until all of the timing hoppers are supplied with the items. Then, all of the item-filled timing hoppers are opened to simultaneously drop the items into all of storage cavities arranged in arrays.
The patent document No. 3 describes a similar apparatus using a feeding chute and a tray having a plurality of cavities arranged in arrays to hold the items. In this apparatus, the feeding chute supplied with the weight items is moved in a direction in which the cavities are arranged, and the items are discharged through edge nozzles of the feeding chute into the cavities.